Punjab Caretaker Health Minister Professor Javed Akram Monday expressed that the low rate of breastfeeding is a major cause of the pneumonia deaths among kids.
\nTalking to a private news channel, he said that lack of breastfeeding can also result in stunted growth in children and so the health department is taking steps to encourage this feeding and nursing of infants in early ages.<\/p>\n
To another question, he said that the Punjab has reported around 17,000 pneumonia cases so far this, with a mortality rate of 1.3 percent.
\nHe said media need to run massive awareness campaigns to educate the public about benefits of mother feed and for timely vaccination.
\n\u201cA majority of victims of pneumonia are malnourished kids with low immunity,\u201d he said, adding, mothers must breast-feed their children to boost their immunity against such diseases.
\nMinister for Health said that malnutrition and promotion of breastfeeding remained a top priority agenda of the current government as relevant ministries and departments have been endlessly engaged in efforts to address the issue of malnutrition and to control Pneumonia cases.
\nReplying to a question, he said the there was rise in pneumonia cases in Punjab to the prevalent winter season resulting air pollution, especially smog. Smog, a consequence of air pollution, has been identified as a significant factor contributing to the spike in pneumonia cases.
\nThe minister added that the situation is improving with the intensity of the winter season subsides in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Punjab Caretaker Health Minister Professor Javed Akram Monday expressed that the low rate of breastfeeding is a major cause of the pneumonia deaths among kids. Talking to a private news channel, he said that lack of breastfeeding can also result in stunted growth in children and so the health department is taking steps to encourage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-383839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n